Welcome to our family blog.
We hope that you enjoy each photo and story that reflect our little families journey.
Even though we are miles apart we trust that each post will keep us connected until we meet again.

About Me

I am 34 years old and have been happily married to my best friend (Charles) for 16 in a half wonderful years. We are the proud parents of Aleia Calais and Brienna Grace. We are Missionaries to the country of Austria and after 3 in a half years on the field we are happy and proud to call this our home.

About Allie Cat

Born 5/9/05 Aleia Calais means High, exalted, God's being. She loves her Daddy, drawing, playing in water and eating cereal. Aleia is practical, a great little helper, and has an amazing imagination.

About Boo Bear

Brienna Grace was born in Vienna on 5/30/08. Her name means: Strong, Virtuous, Honorable and Graceful. She has taken our family out of it's comfort zone, and has brought a level of chaos that we were needing. She loves music, eating, and making messes.

Wish list

My Visitors

Sunday, January 31, 2010

(L)ily...... is a fat blue fish who has taken over the castle as her home, she shares with no one and any other fish who dares to enter is immediately attacked.(O)scar..... is so unique, as a baby he was transparent, not real aggressive, kind of makes his home in a corner and gets along with the other two pretty well. Now that he is older he changes daily in his color, I suppose it depends on his mood. He goes from Red with gold spots, transparent in the morning and in the night has a little blue/red color going on. Very NEAT.(T)ax...... He's the cool fish, looks like a taxi cab, he's pretty aggressive and does the most damage in the tank, he makes little mountains out of the rocks each night. When we wake in the morning the tank looks like a completely different home.

L.O.T not to be mistaken for the Lot in the Bible but better none as Lily, Oscar and Tax, 3 little fish who have made their way into our little families heart.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Today my Dad turns one year older. He still doesn't act or seem a day over 29, he can keep up with the best of us. He's a hard working man, who has served in the Navy, retired from Saturn and is now doing many things for the Veterans department in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

I am so thankful to have such a fun, loving and understanding Dad. When I think no one understands me or I just need to smile I give him a call and he seems to know just what to say to brighten day.

The older I get and the more things that come my way, I am so thankful I have my Dad to lean on.

He always comes through for me. My most recent memory is when I had to move my Mom to Arkansas, he was there every step of the way for me. He helped me pack, drive, move and then set her home up all in one week. We made some great memories and I could have never gotten trough such an emotional and physically hard time without him by my side.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Chicka Obuh (right) and Sara Krauss (left) are Aleia's two great little friends. Chicka is one year younger then Aleia but is almost as tall as she is, as soon as Aleia grows out of something we pass it along to Chicka so she can benefit from wearing it until Brienna grows into it. Chicka speaks 3 languages and is an amazing little person.

We only get to see Sara every three month, she lives in Germany. Sara is only 2 weeks younger then Aleia and they both love it when we make time for them to get together, Sara has a brother named Bryan who actually Aleia is more interested in :-) Sara speaks German and finds a way to make herself understood by Aleia, she is such a fun little girl.

Aleia has another great little friend in her Pre-K class, her name is also Sara. They eat, play and communicate in their own little way. Sara likewise only speaks German, but they seem to be the very best friends ever.

So happy Aleia has found such great friends here in Austria and Germany. It is very important to us that she make friends and feels a connection with other children in the church and the community. She has already invited several of her class mates to church and is excited about them coming.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Our trip to Croatia was a short one day trip but very enjoyable. We traveled to the city of Zagreb, it took about 4 hours to get there. We checked into a very affordable hotel, it was clean and just big enough for us to enjoy. My favorite part of the hotel was the bath tub and it would have been the morning buffet at breakfast but since we are on the Daniel fast I wasn't able to enjoy it as much.

A beautiful lamp and building that caught my eye

The evening we arrived in Zagreb we were able to find a very nice restaurant that served an assortment of vegitarian meals, we were thrilled. Not completely satisfying or filling but thankfully I had brought a back pack full of grapes, dried fruit, nuts and some cucumber wedges.

That night Bro. Hulsman, my husband and I enjoyed a long game of travel scrabble. The girls jumped on the beds, explored every little detail of the hotel room and at the end of the night we were all very happy, tired and ready for the morning to come so that we could tour a bit and then get our well needed stamp in our pass ports.

On the cable car, headed to the oldest church in ZagrebAleia's new tiger face, yeah it's her way of hiding that she is really starting to be pretty shy these days. I'd say it's a terrible cover up, hopefully this phase passes as quickly as all the other ones she has gone through.

Bro. Hulsman is our aimer here in Austria, he came with us since he also needed an updated stamp in his pass port. We were successful yet again to get a stamp but it is getting more difficult each time to get through the borders. Keep us in your prayers that we are able to obtain a Visa in the near future.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Charles has been very busy the last few weeks, of course I know that I say that a lot but the beginning of the year is always a very busy time for him. It is at the beginning of each year that he cast new vision for the church in Vienna, and works on getting things in place to do more then has ever been done before in the countries of Austria and Germany.

My husband rocks (MHR's) because even though the schedule, planning, training and the vision seems to be continually evolving he is sure to never make me feel left behind and always makes an effort to assure me that the most important responsibility I have right now are our two beautiful girls.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Pastor and Sister Suppan have been our faithful, loyal and hard working Aim workers for almost two years and they have recently been asked to come and meet the Foreign Missions board in St. Louis. We are so excited for what this not only means for our family but for the church of acts and for the countries of Austria and Germany.

We are so thrilled to have this family apart of the team that is seeing revival happen in Europe.

We look forward to the Suppan family being full time missionaries and working side by side with our family and the rest of the team God has hand picked for this time.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

It's that time again.....Yes it's been 90 days so the suit cases are out, the Croatia money is set aside and the cooler is full of vegetables and fruit to snack on while on our journey.

As I was getting the things ready that we needed for our trip to Croatia tomorrow, Aleia saw that I put her little pink ballerina suit case out, which only means to a 4 year old that she must get to pack her own suit case for the fabulous road trip.

Aleia is a perfect little traveler and count's the days until the next trip we take......she's a bit like her Father in that way I'd have to say:-)

She asked if she could pack her things and I say of course. So as I'm ironing my clothes for tomorrow the conversation goes like this:

Aleia: Mom can I take my I-pod Nano and 10 booksMe: You can take your I-pod Nano and 3 small booksAleia: That's a great ideaMe: So are ya all ready to goAleia: Yes MamMe: Well let me see what cha got in there

As Aleia wipes her forehead and lifts the very full pink suit case up to me, she then goes on to say:

Aleia: Mom this was very hard workMe: (I laugh) and say yes I'm sure it was

Me: What were you going to wear tomorrowAleia: Oh yeah I forgot, well um let me see......my Cinderella dress!Me: (I laugh) Um yeah NO I don't think soAleia: Well you let me on my 2nd BirthdayMe: Honey that was your 4th Birthday and before you'll be ready to go you'll need to take some of these toys out to make room for your clothesAleia: Yeah I think then I'll be ready to go

It was such hard work deciding what to bring for her one little over night trip to Croatia that when I put her to bed, she was asleep within minutes.